Rope gearing



' June 18, 1935. Q QHNESQRGE 2,005,438

ROPE GEARING Filed Aug. 26, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 18, 1935. o. OHNESORGE 2,005,438

ROPE GEARING Filed Aug. 26, 1 931 5 She ets-Sheet 2 June 1935' o. OHNESORGE ROPE GEARING 5 Sheets-Shet 5 Filed Aug. 26, 1951 Patented June 18 1935 UNITED STATES moans PATENT OFFICE Application August 26,

1931, Serial No. 559,556

lln Germany September 6, 1930 10 Claims.

The invention relates to rope gearing in which the rope is not in direct contact with the drive pulley, but works on an endless track chain coiled upon the pulley, this chain,"with the rope, being 5 traversed by a lateral thrust, so that the coils on r eight cable tracks.

the pulley make way for the on-coining part of the chain.

According to my invention, which is concerned with gearing having more than one rope, the ropes, working on a single track chain are traversed by a single traversing device acting on the chain or chains.

The invention is illustrated in the annexed drawings, showing examples of construction of the gearing.

Fig. 1 is an elevation, partly in section, and

Fig. 2 is an inverted plan of the same with the deflector body in section and the bight of the chain omitted for the sake of clearness.

Fig. 3 is a detail vertical cross-section of a drive pulley of similar construction.

Fig. 4 is a diagram of the displacer guides or deflectors l5 arranged in a plane and showing the helical surfaces thereof.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, I0 is the pulley, and H is the track chain, which has a bight H between the parts where it runs on and off the pulley. This bight engages the under sides of rollers Ma and i219 under the pulley. The chain makes three and a half turns round the pulley and there are four cables it, each making 1 turns, each link or shoe of the chain having two grooves side by side in its outer periphery, so that there are In other words the chain from the running on point of the pulley to the running off point thereof encircles the pulley by three .and one-half windings and a chain from the running off point is led back tothe running on point by half a chain winding hanging freely in a bight below the pulley. This freely hanging chain winding or bight is made possible by the insertion of one or more additional members in the running 01f chain part. The running off chain part becomes longer to the extent of the length of each additional member over the circumference so that the half chain winding can sag or hang freely downwardly to the corresponding extent. In order that. the chain leads may lie easily beside one another and also that the bending of the chain which takes place insagging of the chain below the pulley without superstrain of the members may be effected, a corresponding play is provided in the joints of the chain.

' The chain has bosses l3 engaging grooves It in the pulley, but these are not essential.

The traversing of the track chain is effected by means of fixed circular deflectors l5, and rollers I! on endless chains is, which abut against these deflectors. There is a deflector at each side of the pulley, for traversing in opposite di rections, in order that the rope gear can work in both directions of rotation. The deflectors or guides l5 have helical surfaces facing the rollers ii, in order to impart the required inward push, and where the inner and outer ends of the helical guide-way meet each guide has an over-hanging. curved flange l9 forming a cam surface for de fleeting the roller chain. The deflectors l5 are fixed to the supporting structure in any convenient way, e. g. as indicated at H3 A slight amount of play is allowed to the track chain between the two deflectors, so that when either of the deflectors is in operation the other does not press its roller chain against the track chain. As shown in Fig. 3, I may have an overhanging flange 93 fixed to the deflector [5, which is out of contact with the chain [8 when the rollers ii are in operation, but which limits the inward movement of the chain and prevents the rollers from fouling the track chain when they are not in operation.

The flange 93 need not extend round the whole circumference of the deflector.

Fig. 3 shows a ledge 90 formed on the deflector, on which the rollers IT in the upper part of the gear rest.

With the single track chain described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2 the plurality of coils thereof closely embrace the pulley or drum, and lie closely side by side, from the point where the chain runs on to the drum to the point where it runs off. This has the advantage that the traversing can be effected by a push applied only at one or other side of the pulley, as by the roller chains described, and moreover the length of the chain is utilized to the fullest possible extent, all of it, except the bight or loop, being effective for gripping the drum and guiding the cables. Each link of the chain comes in succession into engagement with all of the cables, so that uniformity of wear of the chains is ensured, though the stress on the cables may not be uniform.

It will be understood, of course, that I may if desired have a separate track chain for each rope or cable, always provided that a single traversing device traverses all the chains.

An essential feature of the present invention is that the endless chain winding runs under all of the parallelly arranged ropes, that is to say all of parallelly. arranged ropes, one after the other, run in one and the same rope groove of the chain so that all of the chain members or links come into contact with all of the ropes, which is of the greatest importance for the maintenance of the same winding diameter for all of the ropes.

If in the examples as shown in the drawings the shoe or track chain is provided with two rope grooves, this has been done in order to show clearly this feature. Not only are two ropes corresponding to the doubling of the rope groove shown in use, but they are shown as four parallelly arranged ropes in two groups of two ropes each. The shoe or track chain winding hence runs under both parallelly arranged rope groups. While there is only one track chain, it has a plurality of coils which pass around the pulley or drum, and I employ a plurality of the ropes or cables, each of which engages only one of the coils of the track chain, and the track chain is common to all of the ropes. Such construction is especially useful for driving a plurality of cables or ropes such as are used mainly in elevators and the like. By my provision of a track chain the coils of which are respectively engaged each by one of a plurality of ropes, I gain the important advantage of preventing unequal wear and change of the working diameter of the peripheral groove engaged by the ropes and which is unavoidable in pulley drives as heretofore constructed. By arranging the single track chain with a series of coils each of which is engaged by one of a plurality of ropes, stresses are so distributed that wear of the ropes and wear of the peripheral portions of the coils of the track chain are so compensated as to prevent differences in tension on the ropes and in the diameter or radial extent of the peripheralportions of the coils of the track chain and hence stresses on the ropes or cables are equalized and they are driven at uniform speed.

Such advantages are not gained by either of my constructions covered by my German Patents 491,646 and 493,632.

What I claim is:

1. An apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned juxtaposed convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series while being spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, and a mechanism simultaneously cooperating with all convolutions of the chain for moving the tension elements axially relatively to the pulley.

2. An aparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned juxtaposed convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series in the form of a free hanging bight spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, and a mechanism for uniformly and continually constraining all convolutions of the chain axially, said mechanism being common to all of the tension elements.

3. An aparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned juxtaposed convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series while being spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, and a mechanism simultaneously cooperating with all of said tension elements and chain convolutions for axially shifting said tension elements and convolutions during rotation of the pulley.

4. An apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series, while being spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain whereby during the rotation of the pulley and chain each tension element is successively supported by each portion of said chain, and a mechanism simultaneously cooperating with all of said chain convolutions for axially traversing the same during the rotation of the pulley.

5. An apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series while being spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, a mechanism simultaneously cooperating with all of said convolutions for axially shifting the same in one direction in respect of the pulley upon rotation of said pulley in one direction, and another mechanism common to all of said convolutions for axially shifting the same in the opposite direction axially of the pulley upon rotation of said pulley in the opposite direction.

6. An apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series while being spaced from below, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, a mechanism simultaneously cooperating with all of the convolutions for axially constraining the same in a predeterined direction relatively to the pulley, said mechanism comprising a series of rollers and means for maintaining said rollers in engagement with the outer convolution of the series of convolutions of the chain on the pulley.

'7. An apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series while being spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, a mechanism simul-' taneously cooperating with said convolutions for axially constraining the same in one direction upon rotation of the pulley in a predetermined direction, said mechanism comprising an antifriction endless chain driven by the pulley and a 78 deflector having a helical cam face in engagement with the anti-friction elements of said chain, and another mechanism comprising an anti-friction endless chain driven by the pulley and a deflector having a helical cam face in engagement with the anti-friction elements of said last-named chain, said second mechanism being also common to all of the convolutions and being adapted to constrain the same for axial movement in the opposite direction upon rotation of said pulley in the opposite direction.

8. An apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series while being spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, the endless chain being composed of links having guide grooves for the tension elements, and each link being provided with a pair of parallel guide grooves adapted to receive and support difierent portions of tension elements, and a mechanism simultaneously cooperating with said convolutions for axially constraining the same relatively to the pulley in a predetermined direction upon movement of said pulley in a predetermined direction.

9. An apparatus of the character described,

comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the endless chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series, while being spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, and mechanism cooperating simultaneously with all of said convolutions for axially constraining the same relatively to the pulley at each revolution of the pulley to an extent equal to the helical pitch of the chain.

10. An apparatus of the character described, comprising in combination a pulley, an endless chain coiled in a series of helically positioned juxtaposed convolutions about said pulley and engaging the same, a portion of the chain extending from the convolution at one end of the series to the convolution at the other end of the series while being spaced from the pulley, a plurality of tension elements, each supported on at least one convolution of the chain, and means simultaneously cooperating with all of said convolutions and in engagement with an end convolution for axially constraining said tension elements to the extent equal to the width of the chain with each revolution of the pulley.

OTTO OHNESORGE. 

